The case for commuting by motorcycle

Despite the reputation, it's better, more practical transit than you might think.

See full article...

 

[normally butters]

I wish you'd mention some of the fatality/injury stats for motorcyles before saying they're not dangerous. These things are death traps and the data backs that. I worry about anyone that recommends them as a mode of travel.

Motorcycles have significantly worse fatality rates than cars, but so do all other transportation modes that interact with roadways except for buses and trains. Fatality rates for motorcycles, ebikes, bicycles, and pedestrians tend to be clustered surprisingly close together in most countries. In some countries, there's more separation between pedestrian fatality rates and the two-wheeled modes, and in other countries walking is barely safer than cycling.

Especially in North America, we've made the roads safer for cars while making them more dangerous for everybody else. If you prioritize safety, trains and buses are best, cars are okay, and everything else is much more dangerous. The statistics and the trends over time are frightening, and from a purely data-driven perspective, if cyclists are wearing helmets, pedestrians ought to consider helmets, too. Socially unlikely, but that's what the data says.